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SERIOUS questions were raised over the London 2012 anti-doping process last night as it emerged that van drivers stored their sandwiches and soft drinks in the same refrigerator as athletes' blood and urine samples.

One expert called the arrangements "bizarre" and said athletes would be angered to discover their samples were being treated so casually.

Astonishingly, however, the firm which transports the samples said no rules had been breached.

According to the pre-publicity, the 6,250 samples in sealed, bar-coded bottles packed in insulated boxes to keep them cool, were to be picked up from Olympic venues by couriers UPS for analysis at the GlaxoSmithKline laboratory in Harlow, north-east of London.

But a whistleblower, has uncovered a secure secret "holding area" at a police facility on a slip road just off the M11 in Chigwell, about 13 miles from Harlow.